Pulse unveils new way to add an NFC antenna to a mobile phone

The electronic components supplier’s new 15mm x 20mm x 5mm NFC antenna can be incorporated into a single module that also houses the phone’s main mobile communications antenna, making it easier for a handset manufacturer to build near field communication functionality into a device.

NFC STAMP: New format offers same performance as a traditional loop antenna

Electronic components supplier Pulse Engineering has announced a new NFC antenna product that can be snapped into the same module within a mobile phone that houses its main GSM/WCDMA mobile communications antenna.

One of the issues handset manufacturers face when designing phones with built-in NFC functionality is the large form factor of a standard NFC loop antenna. For its new antenna, however, Pulse has taken a different approach and come up with a product that, instead, has a much smaller but deeper footprint.

The new NFC Stamp antenna measures 15mm x 20mm x 5mm deep and is designed to be integrated into the back cover of the main antenna housing. That way, both the NFC antenna and the main antenna can be fitted inside a 40mm x 21mm x 5mm module, enabling both 13.56MHz near field communication and frequency ranges of 824-960MHz and 1710-2170MHz for wireless connectivity using GSM and WCDMA to be built into the same device.

Pulse’s NFC Stamp antenna can read tags with diameters ranging from 15mm to 65mm at distances ranging from 5mm to 20mm and, the company says, when testing with rectangular tags measuring up to 86x53mm, the performance is comparable to that of a large loop antenna measuring 110mm x 42mm.